


Tea and a Letter

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders' Era, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-27
Updated: 2005-11-27
Packaged: 2019-01-19 23:33:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12420510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: An awkward tea-time interaction yields some interesting results. A fluffy-ish one-shot.





	Tea and a Letter

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

It wasn’t quite a date. Lily wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was one of those spur-of-the-moment things. A couple of words, some hair ruffling, a nod, and all of a sudden she was in this weird, undefinable sort of situation. 

Sitting down with him was uncomfortable. It was one thing to be outside, having a casual conversation about school and such. “I heard they’re giving seventh years extra Hogsmeade privileges this year.”� “Oh, really?”� Conversations like those were so easy to end with “Well I must be getting along now...”� It was quite another thing to be sitting in a café with someone. Small talk was painfully obvious and, well, just painful. Somehow a café setting called for something a bit deeper than the shallow, school-related chit-chat that was so common between them. 

Lily wanted to be mad at herself. How could she agree to something like this? It was unprecedented in her relationship with him. The whole situation was completely awkward and certainly not fun, but a part of her, a very small part, was oddly delighted by the proceedings. It seemed to hold potential. For what, she didn’t even want to think about, it just felt right, somehow. 

She attempted a smile in his direction but was sure that he’d missed it. He seemed distracted, fiddling around with his teaspoon and barely glancing at her. She squirmed a bit. Since when was James Potter quiet? It was almost as though his behavior automatically adapted itself to whatever would annoy her most at the given moment. 

She cleared her throat. “So, um, Potter...”� she began with entirely no idea what she was about to ask him. He looked up at her as though he had only suddenly become aware of her presence. 

“Yes, Evans?”� His voice was polite enough but it seemed to her that there was just the slightest hint of a smirk on his face. It would be just like him to take an awkward situation and turn it around on her. Or maybe she was just being too critical. 

“I...well— what’s going on in your life?”� She mentally slapped herself. It didn’t help that he looked confused. 

“My life?”� 

“Yeah,”� she nodded, as if it was not the stupidest most vague question of all time and that she genuinely wanted an answer. 

He stared at her for a moment as though he were analyzing her. He was making her anxious and if there was one thing she couldn’t let him see was how nervous he made her. She hated it when she didn’t have the upper-hand when it came to anything involving James Potter. 

“Nothing much, really. Besides the Head Boy thing and whatnot... things have been pretty much... okay.”� He drawled this out with an eyebrow raised, as though he were testing the words on her. She nodded encouragingly and felt like even more of an idiot. 

“Anything... interesting happen lately?”� she pressed on, determined to salvage the lousy conversation in any way she could. 

He frowned at her, still analyzing. Why did he have to do that? It was so unsettling. 

“There are a couple of things that’ve been going on... with friends.”� 

“Oh?”� 

“Yeah. This one friend—”� 

“Sirius?”� 

“A _friend_ ,”� he continued, pointedly disregarding her interruption, “who has been having a lot of trouble lately with... a number of things and well, I’ve been trying to help.”� He looked up expectantly, as if anticipating a response from her. She remained quiet. 

“Also, there’s this other friend who I’ve been meaning to say something important to but I’m not sure how... this friend will take it.”� He continued staring at her. She wasn’t sure what to make of him. The mocking undertone of his words earlier seemed to have entirely disappeared with a sense of seriousness taking their place. 

“Um, could this... important thing possibly damage your friendship?”� she attempted. He looked thoughtful for a moment and, before he could answer, she barreled on. “I would think about it in terms of risk and reward. Is it really worth it to tell your friend this... thing? Like, are the possible consequences of telling them completely worth getting this across to them.”� She hoped she sounded confident and as if she knew what she was talking about. 

“I think it would be worth it,”� he finally answered, staring at his fingers. “My issue is that I would be afraid to, well... confront them about it.”� 

“Could you do this in a letter? Sometimes that’s easier, you know.”� 

He nodded a bit. She sipped her tea, musing on how unexpected he was. One minute she was sure he was mocking her awkwardness and the next he seemed to be sincerely grateful for her advice. She wondered for a moment if it was all some weird ploy of his but dismissed that, annoyed at herself for her ever-present cynicism. 

“Sometimes a really well thought out letter can be just as effective as just telling your friend something,”� Lily went on, as though she were an expert on such matters. “You just have to grit your teeth and get down to it.”� 

“Yeah, I suppose.”� He stirred his teaspoon around his already empty tea-cup for a bit more. 

They said goodbye a half an hour later and went their separate ways. The image of him stirring his teaspoon stuck with her for the rest of the day. Potter was odd and she wasn’t sure what to make of him. The caution they employed around each other was almost regrettable, she thought. She would have liked him to have been more open with her. With this thought in mind she got ready for bed. As she began to close her windows an owl zoomed in, causing her to fall backwards in surprise. Frowning, she got back up and disentangled the letter it carried from it’s leg. It was strange; she never received owls from her friends that late. 

For a moment she was confused, reading the front of the envelope. She blinked and it hit her suddenly. She ripped the letter out, leaving the envelope to flutter down to her floor with the words _To Lily, From James_ flashing oddly in the dim light.


End file.
